Harvey’s participation medal. He was sad football season was over already. 
Mav’s team didn’t win the playoffs, but they played really well and made it to the second to last tier. The ump let the other team skirt some rules otherwise they probably would’ve won. What a bummer! 
Beverly (and the other kids) are beginning to feel more a part of the ward and are growing great new friendships. 
We made a trip to Dave and Busters using a coupon from their fun run. 
Luna loves the whole family, but she especially loves Andy, me, Max and Harvey. We’re just a little calmer… 
Max doesn’t like his picture taken, but he looked so handsome I told him “tough.” 
The kids were invited to pan for gold for Max’s friend’s birthday party. They had a blast. 
Harvey took it very seriously. 
Beverly finally got to start tumbling. They told me she won’t be in beginner’s tumbling for log because her cousin Belle already taught her so much.
Sara asked me if I ever get post vacation blues. I don’t know if I get blue, but I definitely feel post-vacation exhaustion. Andy has been working like crazy since we got back. He took on extra shifts to help pay for some of the unexpected expenses that have come up since getting our home: plumbing issues, electrical, some rundown fans, new oven, new AC units, and many more to come. When he’s home he is working on one of his many projects. The kids are busy too. Mav is in baseball playoffs this upcoming week. Bev will be starting gymnastics on Thursday and has been in a run-hard club at school. Max is busy studying with all of his advanced classes and Harvey just finished his football season. I will actually miss it a bit but it is nice not to have baseball or football every night of the week. Luna has been keeping me busy, but we have gotten into a better rhythm this week and she has gone accident free for two days. I’m slowly getting integrated into our new ward’s social sphere and I really enjoy the ladies here. My kids are making new friends too. Beverly had two playdates this week with two different girls and proceeded to “chat” with them the whole next day. They’re both in our ward and both in run-hard. Daisy is acclimating to the ball of fluff and seems less annoyed when Luna goes nuts. Luna is also calming down a bit from the first weekend. I didn’t realize how much rest time she actually needed, but now that she’s getting more of that, she seems much happier. Harvey has caught the bug of reading. I was so excited about it, I filmed it, and then he had to film himself reading. It was so cute. This Friday he came home crying because someone at school called him “skibbidy toilet.” I had a hard time keeping a straight face and talking him through his feelings. Beverly had her 3rd grade performance this week and it was very cute.
We had a great time celebrating Halloween this year. The kids have been enjoying Hocus Pocus playing on repeat throughout the week, we went to our old ward’s trunk or treat last Saturday and our new ward’s this Tuesday. (Minus Harvey and Max on Tuesday–Max had an orthodontia appliance put in on Tuesday and has been pretty miserable all week and Harvey was sick). We went to our old neighborhood to trick or treat because apparently our side of the neighborhood “doesn’t really do Halloween” (lame) and the side that does is absolutely insane. I left a bowl of candy on our front porch anyway and I’m not sure it was touched. Luckily some seniors were walking by around 8:30 when we got back and I was able to give each of them a very large handful so we don’t have too much leftover.
I recently joined a General Conference study group with my new ward. The talk we studied last week was, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for all.” We talked about various points in the talk that stood out to us and I mentioned how exciting the bit about the records of Jesus Christ visiting the lost tribes of Israel would come forth. And another lady asked if we thought it would be the church finding it or if it would be an archeological find in the secular world. I said, maybe both, but I thought that it made sense if it was found in the archeological world because earlier in his talk he was expanding on the fact that science and faith do not need to conflict–that ultimately, truth is truth. And I said, I bet it was in preparation for the latter part of his talk to remind us to have faith. I have seen people leave the church because President Nelson recommended the Covid shot (which by the way really did save millions of lives despite some of its not so great side effects). And I’ve seen people leave for far less or other concerns, so I could see people who are not secure in their faith and having their faith anchored into the keystones and foundation (Jesus Christ), that something as exciting as more scripture could possibly rattle some people’s faith. When I said, that, the sister that asked me the question about whether it would be found in the world or by the church, acted as if a lightbulb went off. She said, “I had been talking about this talk with my family and they had thought that his talk was all over the place, but when you talk about it like his talk contains stepping blocks, it makes perfect sense to me!” I agree. I don’t think I realized that about the talk either until we started talking about it. This is another interesting concept to consider, that even though I listened to his talk and read it on my own, it wasn’t until I shared my testimony on it with others that my understanding in it increased. This is the reason why it’s so important to read and reread the scriptures. We forget things easily, but it is also a bit like an archeological dig–the more we scrape against the surface, the deeper we get, discovering more and more layers of truth.